Peter Kropotkin : Russian Father of Anarcho-Communism

(1842 - 1921)

Description

As anarchism's most important philosophers he was in great demand as a writer and contributed to the journals edited by Benjamin Tucker (Liberty), Albert Parsons (Alarm) and Johann Most (Freiheit). Tucker praised Kropotkin's publication as "the most scholarly anarchist journal in existence."

Quotes

"ANARCHISM, the name given to a principle or theory of life and conduct under which society is conceived without government - harmony in such a society being obtained, not by submission to law, or by obedience to any authority, but by free agreements concluded between the various groups, territorial and professional, freely constituted for the sake of production and consumption, as also for the satisfaction of the infinite variety of needs and aspirations of a civilized being."

From : "Anarchism," by Peter Kropotkin, from the Encyclopedia Britannica, 1910

"Which side will you take? For the law and against justice, or for justice and against the law?"

From : "An Appeal to the Young," by Peter Kropotkin, 1880

"The communes of the next revolution will proclaim and establish their independence by direct socialist revolutionary action, abolishing private property. When the revolutionary situation ripens, which may happen any day, and governments are swept away by the people, when the middle-class camp, which only exists by state protection, is thus thrown into disorder, the insurgent people will not wait until some new government decrees, in its marvelous wisdom, a few economic reforms."

From : "The Commune of Paris," by Peter Kropotkin, Freedom Pamphlets, no. 2

"To recognize all men as equal and to renounce government of man by man is another increase of individual liberty in a degree which no other form of association has ever admitted even as a dream."

From : "Communism and Anarchy," by Peter Kropotkin, 1901

"...all that is necessary for production-- the land, the mines, the highways, machinery, food, shelter, education, knowledge--all have been seized by the few in the course of that long story of robbery, enforced migration and wars, of ignorance and oppression..."

From : "The Conquest of Bread," by Peter Kropotkin, 1906

"...the strength of Anarchy lies precisely in that it understands all human faculties and all passions, and ignores none..."

From : "The Conquest of Bread," by Peter Kropotkin, 1906

"The fatherland does not exist.... What fatherland can the international banker and the rag-picker have in common?"

From : "The Conquest of Bread," by Peter Kropotkin, 1906

"As to parliamentary rule, and representative government altogether... It is becoming evident that it is merely stupid to elect a few men, and to entrust them with the task of making laws on all possible subjects, of which subject most of them are utterly ignorant."

From : "Process Under Socialism," by Peter Kropotkin, 1887

"...outside of anarchism there is no such thing as revolution."

From : "Revolutionary Government," by Peter Kropotkin, 1880

"...let us remember that if exasperation often drives men to revolt, it is always hope, the hope of victory, which makes revolutions."

From : "The Spirit of Revolution," by Peter Kropotkin, first appearing in Le Révolté in 1880

Prince Pyotr Alexeyevich Kropotkin (/kroʊˈpɒtkɪn, krə-/;[10] Russian: Пётр Алексе́евич Кропо́ткин; December 9, 1842 – February 8, 1921) was a Russian activist, scientist, and philosopher, who advocated anarchism. Kropotkin was a proponent of a decentralized communist society free from central government and based on voluntary associations of self-governing communities and worker-run enterprises. He wrote many books, pamphlets and articles, the most prominent being The Conquest of Bread and Fields, Factories and Workshops, and his principal scientific offering, Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution. He also contributed the article on anarchism to the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, and left unfinished a work on anarchist ethical philosophy.

From : Wikipedia

Works

This person has authored 351 documents, with 1,319,859 words or 8,184,730 characters.

Anarchism : Anarchist and Anti-Authoritarianism -- 1893 ~ (1,941 Words / 11,258 Characters)Freedom: March 1893, p14 Advice to Those About to Emigrate In these days when Home Colonization is seriously discussed, and is even tried, in England as an outlet for the populations of our congested towns, the following letters will be of much interest to our readers. A comrade in New South Wales, writing to Kropotkin for suggestions and advice, says: "As you are probably aware, the Labor movement in Australia has advanced tremendously during the last four or five years. The reason, I believe, lies in the increased agitation in the minds of the people through the late strikes here and also in England and America. The Labor Party here got the worst of it in the last three big strikes, yet the importance of those strikes as factors in educating people's minds cannot be overlooked - eg. direct results of defeat of the Maritime Strike were the formation of Labor Electoral Leagues all over New South Wales, and the sending in of thirty-four... (From : Anarchy Archives.)

Anarchism : Anarchist and Anti-Authoritarianism -- 1910 ~ (5,411 Words / 34,901 Characters)ANARCHISM (from the Gr. ἄν, and αρχος, contrary to authority), the name given to a principle or theory of life and conduct under which society is conceived without government - harmony in such a society being obtained, not by submission to law, or by obedience to any authority, but by free agreements concluded between the various groups, territorial and professional, freely constituted for the sake of production and consumption, as also for the satisfaction of the infinite variety of needs and aspirations of a civilized being. In a society developed on these lines, the voluntary associations which already now begin to cover all the fields of human activity would take a still greater extension so as to substitute themselves for the state in all its functions. They would represent an interwoven network, composed of an infinite variety of groups and federations of all sizes and degrees, local, regional, national and international... (From : Anarchy Archives.)

Anarchism : Anarchist and Anti-Authoritarianism -- 1898 ~ (12,878 Words / 78,960 Characters)"Anarchism: its philosophy and ideal." San Francisco: Free Society, 1898. ANARCHISM: Its Philosophy and ldeal. BY PETER KROPOTKIN. ANARCHY. (Translated from the German by Harry Lyman Koopman.) Ever reviled, accursed,-n'er understood, Thou art the grisly terror of our age. "Wreck of all order," cry the multitude, "Art thou, and war and murder's endless rage." O, let them cry. To them that ne'er have striven, The truth that lies behind a word to find, To them the word's right meaning was not given. They shall continue blind among the blind. But thou, O word, so clear, so strong, so pure, That sayest all which I for goal have taken. I give thee to the future! -Thine secure When each at last unto himself shall waken. Comes it in sunshine? In the tempest's thrill? I cannot tell......but it the earth sha... (From : Anarchy Archives.)

Anarchism : Anarchist and Anti-Authoritarianism -- 1927 ~ (10,733 Words / 65,639 Characters)From: Peter Kropotkin, Kropotkin's Revolutionary Pamphlets. Roger N. Baldwin, editor. Vangaurd Press, Inc. 1927 ANARCHIST COMMUNISM: ITS BASIS AND PRINCIPLES Section I Section II Additional Note to "Anarchist Communism" I Anarchism, the no-government system of socialism, has a double origin. It is an outgrowth of the two great movements of thought in the economic and the political fields which characterize the nineteenth century, and especially its second part. In common with all socialists, the anarchists hold that the private ownership of land, capital, and machinery has had its time; that it is condemned to disappear; and that all requisites for production must, and will, become the common property of society, and be managed in common by the producers of wealth. And in common with the most a... (From : Anarchy Archives.)

Anarchism : Anarchist and Anti-Authoritarianism -- 1898 Section I Anarchist Morality by Peter Kropotkin The history of human thought recalls the swinging of a pendulum which takes centuries to swing. After a long period of slumber comes a moment of awakening. Then thought frees herself from the chains with which those interested--rulers, lawyers, clerics--have carefully enwound her. She shatters the chains. She subjects to severe criticism all that has been taught her, and lays bare the emptiness of the religious political, legal, and social prejudices amid which she has vegetated. She starts research in new paths, enriches our knowledge with new discoveries, creates new sciences. But the inveterate enemies of thought--the government, the lawgiver, and the priest--soon recover from their defeat. By degrees they gather together their scattered forces, and remodel their faith and their code of laws to adapt them to the new needs. Then, profiting by the...

Anarchism : Anarchist and Anti-Authoritarianism -- 1880 ~ (9,087 Words / 51,981 Characters)An Appeal to the Young by Peter Kropotkin "Peter Kropotkin...was recognized by friend and foe as one of the greatest minds...of the nineteenth century...The lucidity and brilliance of his mind combined with his warmheartedness into the harmonious whole of a fascinating and gracious personality. " -Emma Goldman REVOLT! Addressed to young men and women preparing to enter the professions, An Appeal to the Young was first published in 1880 in Kropotkin's paper, La Revolte, and was soon thereafter issued as a pamphlet. An American edition was brought out by Charles H. Kerr in 1899, in the wake of the great Anarchist's first U.S. speaking tour; his Memoirs of a Revolutionist was also published (by Houghton-Mifflin) that year. A new edition in Kerr's "Pocket Library of Socialism" appeared in 1901; just after Kropotkin's second U.S. tour. (In Chicago, he had been introduced to a large audience by Clarence Darrow, a close asso... (From : Anarchy Archives.)

Anarchism : Anarchist and Anti-Authoritarianism -- 1890 ~ (9,743 Words / 58,801 Characters)IN olden times, men of science, and especially those who have done most to forward the growth of natural philosophy, did not despise manual work and handicraft. Galileo made his telescopes with his own hands. Newton learned in his boyhood the art of managing tools; be exercised his young mind in contriving most ingenious machines, and when he began his researches in optics he was able himself to grind the lenses for his instruments and himself to make the well known telescope which, for its time, was a fine piece of workmanship. Leibnitz was fond of inventing machines: windmills and carriages to be moved without horses preoccupied his mind as much as mathematical and philosophical speculations. Linnaeus became a botanist while helping his father-a practical gardener-in his daily work. In short, with our great geniuses handicraft was no obstacle to abstract researches-it rather favored them. On the other band, if the workers of old found but few opportu... (From : Anarchy Archives.)

Anarchism : Anarchist and Anti-Authoritarianism -- 1887 ~ (7,394 Words / 44,219 Characters)The views taken in the preceding article as to the combination of efforts being the chief source of our wealth explain why more anarchists see in communism the only equitable solution as to the adequate remuneration of individual efforts. There was a time when a family engaged in agriculture, and supported by a few domestic trades, could consider the corn they raised and the plain woolen cloth they wove as production of their own and nobody else's labor. Even then such a view was not quite correct: there were forests cleared and roads built by common efforts; and even then the family had continually to apply for communal help, as it is still the case in so many village communities. But now, under the extremely interwoven state of industry, of which each branch supports all others, such as the individualistic view can be held no more. If the iron trade and the cotton industry of this country have reached so high a degree of development, they have done so owing... (From : Anarchy Archives.)

Anarchism : Anarchist and Anti-Authoritarianism -- 1913 ~ (4,788 Words / 28,987 Characters)Kropotkin, Peter. . The Coming War The Nineteenth Century: A monthly Review The Coming War If I were asked to give my opinion, as a geographer, on the pending conflict on the Afghan frontier, I should merely open the volume of Elisée Reclus's Geographie Universelle L'Asie, Russe, and show the pages he has consecrated under this head to the description of the Afghan Turkistan. Summing up the result of his extensive careful and highly impartial studies of Central Asia, Reclus has not hesitated to recognize that, geographically, the upper Oxus and all the northern slope of the Iran and Afghan plateaux belong to the Ural-Caspian region, and that the growing influence of the Slavonian might cannot fail to unite, sooner or later, into one political group, the various parts of this immense basin. And, surely, nobody who has studied these countries -without being influenced by political... (From : Anarchy Archives.)

Anarchism : Anarchist and Anti-Authoritarianism -- 1880 ~ (4,864 Words / 29,227 Characters)I. THE PLACE OF THE COMMUNE IN SOCIALIST EVOLUTION On March 18, 1871, the people of Paris rose against a despised and detested government, and proclaimed the city independent free, belonging to itself. This overthrow of the central power took place without the usual stage effects of revolution, without the firing of guns, without the shedding of blood upon barricades. When the armed people came out into the streets, the rulers fled away, the troops evacuated the town, the civil functionaries hurriedly retreated to Versailles carrying everything they could with them. The government evaporated like a pond of stagnant water in a spring breeze, and on the nineteenth the great city of Paris found herself free from the impurity which had defiled her, with the loss of scarcely a drop of her children's blood. Yet the change thus accomplished began a new era in that long series of revolutions whereby the peoples are marching from slavery to freedo... (From : Anarchy Archives.)

Anarchism : Anarchist and Anti-Authoritarianism -- 1901 ~ (4,883 Words / 29,682 Characters)Many Anarchists and thinkers in general, whilst recognizing the immense advantages which Communism may offer to society, yet consider this form of social organization a danger to the liberty and free development of the individual. This danger is also recognized by many Communists, and, taken as a whole, the question is merged in that other vast problem which our century has laid bare to its fullest extent: the relation of the individual to society. The importance of this question need hardly be insisted upon. The problem became obscured in various ways. When speaking of Communism, most people think of the more or less Christian and monastic and always authoritarian Communism advocated in the first half of this century and practiced in certain communities. These communities took the family as a model and tried to constitute "the great Communist family" to "reform man,". To this end, in addition to working in common, they imposed the living closely together like... (From : Anarchy Archives.)

Anarchism : Anarchist and Anti-Authoritarianism -- 1906 THE CONQUEST OF BREAD by P. Kropotkin CHAPTER VII Clothing I WHEN the houses have become the common heritage of the citizens, and when each man has his daily supply of food, another forward step will have to be taken. The question of clothing will of course demand consideration next, and again the only possible solution will be to take possession, in the name of the people, of all the shops and warehouses where clothing is sold or stored, and to throw open the doors to all, so that each can take what he needs. The communalization of clothing--the right of each to take what he needs from the communal stores, or to have it made for him at the tailors and outfitters--is a necessary corollary of the communalization of houses and food. Obviously we shall not need for that to despoil all citizens of their c...

Anarchism : Anarchist and Anti-Authoritarianism -- 1905 ~ (9,254 Words / 57,375 Characters)The greatest excitement has prevailed in Russia for the last few weeks since it became known that representatives of the Zemstvos of thirty-four provinces of the Empire were going to meet at St. Petersburg in order to discuss the necessary reforms in the general political organization of the country. The very fact that such an authorization had been granted was equivalent to an invitation to discuss a scheme of a Constitution; and so it was understood everywhere. When the Zemstvo delegates were leaving their respective provincial towns they were sent off by groups of enthusiastic friends, whose parting words were: 'Return with a Constitution!' Their original intention was to make of their conference a solemn official gathering which would speak to the Government in its official capacity, but at the last moment the Minister of the Interior refused to grant the necessary authorization; and as the Zemstvo delegates declared that they were decided to meet neverthe... (From : Anarchy Archives.)

Anarchism : Anarchist and Anti-Authoritarianism -- 1920 ~ (9,278 Words / 62,542 Characters)[Since this article was written Prince Kropotkin, whose efforts on behalf of the Russian people forty years ago resulted in his imprisonment in the Fortress of St. Peter and St. Paul, has been incarcerated in the same prison by the accursed Bolshevists who now misrepresent that people. The Editor is unable to obtain any news of Prince Kropotkin, but there is only too much reason to fear that he has been murdered in the name of those whom he befriended.] There can be no doubt that species may become greatly modified through the direct action of environment. I have some excuse for not having formerly insisted more strongly on this head in my Origin of Species, as most of the best facts have been observed since its publication. --- Darwin, Life and Letters, iii. 232 WHEN we cast a general glance upon the work accomplished during the last half-century in connection with the theory of evolution, we see that the question which u... (From : Anarchy Archives.)

Anarchism : Anarchist and Anti-Authoritarianism -- 1924 The text is from my copy of Peter Kropotkin, Ethics: Origins and Development, London: George E Harrap Co, Ltd. Ethics: Origin and Development by Peter Kropotkin Introduction by the Russian Editor "ETHICS" is the swan song of the great humanitarian scientist and revolutionist-anarchist, and constitutes, as it were, the crowning work and the résumé of all the scientific, philosophical, and sociological views of Peter Alekseyevich Kropotkin, at which he arrived in the course of his long and unusually rich life. Unfortunately, death came before he could complete his work, and, according to the will and desire of Peter Alekseyevich, the responsible task of preparing "Ethics" for the press fell upon me. In issuing the first volume of "Ethics", I feel the necessity of saying a few words to acquaint the reader with the history of this work. In his "Ethics" Kropotkin wished to give answers to the two fundamental p...

Anarchism : Anarchist and Anti-Authoritarianism -- (4,335 Words / 25,600 Characters)It is told of Rothschild that, seeing his fortune threatened by the revolution of 1849, he hit upon the following stratagem: - I am quite willing to admit, said he, that my fortune has been accumulated at the expense of others, but if it were divided among the millions of Europe to-morrow the share of each would only amount to five schillings if he asks me for it. Having given due publicity to his promise, our millionaire proceeded as usual to stroll quietly through the streets of Frankfort. Three or four passersby asked for their five schillings, which he disbursed with a sardonic smile. His stratagem succeeded and the family of the millionaire is still in possession of its wealth. It is in much the same fashion that the shrewd heads among the middle classes reason when they say Ah, expropriation, I know what that means. You take all of the top coats and lay them in a heap, and every one is free to help himself and fi... (From : Anarchy Archives.)

Anarchism : Anarchist and Anti-Authoritarianism -- 1912 CHAPTER IV. THE POSSIBILITIES OF AGRICULTURE (continued) The doctrine of Malthus--Progress in wheat-growing--East Flanders--Channel lslands--Potato crops, past and present --Irrigation--Major Hallet's experiments--Planted wheat. FEW books have exercised so pernicious an influence upon the general development of economic thought as Malthus's Essay on the Principle of Population exercised for three consecutive generations. It appeared at the right time, like all books which have had any influence at all, and it summed up ideas already current in the minds of the wealth-possessing minority. It was precisely when the ideas of equality and liberty, awakened by the French and American revolutions, were still permeating the minds of the poor, while the richer classes had become tired of their amateur excursions into the same domains, that Malthus came to assert, in reply to Godwin, that no equality is possible; that the poverty of th...

Anarchism : Anarchist and Anti-Authoritarianism -- (10,220 Words / 63,454 Characters)Kropotkin, P. . "Finland: a Rising Nationality". The Nineteenth Century. March, pp. 527-46. Finland: A Rising Nationality. By Peter Kropotkin National questions are not in vogue now in Europe. After having so much exercised the generation of '48, they seem to be now in neglect. The poor results of a movement which caused so many illusions; the new problems that are coming to the front -- the social problem taking the precedence of all; the prominence recently given to the ideas of unification and centralization above those of territorial independence and federalism, by the sudden growth of a powerful military State in middle Europe, -- all these have helped to repel into the background those questions of national independence which seemed to constitute the very essence of the history of Europe during the first half of our century. Faith in national programs, formerly so fi... (From : Anarchy Archives.)

Anarchism : Anarchist and Anti-Authoritarianism -- 1883 ~ (10,978 Words / 64,929 Characters)I find, in the Contemporary Review for February last, a paper by Mr. Lansdell on 'A Russian Prison,' containing a description of the State prison at the St. Petersburg fortress of St. Peter and St. Paul. This description being, in my opinion, too incomplete to convey a correct idea about the real conditions of prison life in the Russian fortress, and being intended, moreover, to cast a doubt upon other trustworthy information about such parts of the fortress as were not visited by Mr. Lansdell, I desire to give some supplementary information about the fortress which I know from my own experience. At the same time I would avail myself of this opportunity for answering, documents in hand, several questions addressed to me by Mr. Lansdell in the same paper, in connection with Russian prisons generally, and with my opinion about his book, Through Siberia. By giving publicity to new facts and testimonies, let me thus complete the information I have given about ou... (From : Anarchy Archives.)

Anarchism : Anarchist and Anti-Authoritarianism -- 1909 Kropotkin, P. . The Great French Revolution, 1789-1793 (N. F. Dryhurst, Trans.) New York: Vanguard Printings. (Original work published 1909) Chapter XV The Towns Condition of municipal institutions-Feudal rights still exist -Need of municipal reform-Townspeople revolt-New municipality voted- Importance of communalist movement-Paris Commune-Other cities follow-Troubles at Strasbourg -New corporation constituted-Middle classes freed from feudalism-Riots in Troyes, Amiens and other cities- Significance of popular action during Revolution IN the eighteenth century the municipal institutions had fallen to utter decay, owing to the numerous measures taken by royal authority against them for two hundred years. Since the abolition of the plenary assembly of the townspeople, which formerly had the control of urban justice and administration, the affairs of the large cities were going from bad to worse. The po...

Anarchism : Anarchist and Anti-Authoritarianism -- 1889 ~ (6,973 Words / 42,486 Characters)On the 5th of May last the celebration of the centenary of the French Revolution began by the commemoration of the opening of the States- General at Versailles, at the same date, in the memorable year of 1789. And Paris—that city which in January last so clearly manifested its dissatisfaction with Parliamentary rule—heartily joined in the festivities organized to celebrate a day when parliamentary institutions, crossing the Channel, went to take firm root on the Continent. Must we see in the enthusiasm of the Parisians one of those seeming contradictions which are so common in the complicated life of large human agglomerations? Or was it the irresistible attraction of a spring festival which induced the Parisians to rush in flocks to Versailles? Or was it a manifestation intended to show that Paris proposes brilliantly to commemorate the Revolution, and the more so as the monarchies of Europe do not conceal their disgust at the very remembrance of such an even... (From : Anarchy Archives.)

Anarchism : Anarchist and Anti-Authoritarianism -- 1915 Ideals and Realities of Russian Literature Peter Kropotkin CHAPTER I THE Russian Language--Early folk literature: Folk-lore-- Songs-Sagas-Lay of Igor's Raid-Annals-The Mongol Invasion; its consequences-Correspondence between John IV. and Kúrbiskíy-Split in the Church-Avvakúm's Memoirs- The eighteenth century: Peter I. and his contemporaries-Tretiakóvsky-Lomonósoff-Sumarókoff-The times of Catherine II.-Derzhávin-Von Wízin-The Freemasons: Novikóff; Radíscheff-Early nineteenth century: Karamzín and Zhukóvskiy-The Decembrists-Ryléeff. One of the last messages which Turguéneff addressed to Russian writers from his death-bed was to implore them to keep...

Anarchism : Anarchist and Anti-Authoritarianism -- 1884 ~ (8,636 Words / 52,671 Characters)From: Nineteenth Century, 1888, pp. 513-530. The Industrial Village of the Future Peter Kropotkin THE two sister arts of Agriculture and Industry were not always so estranged from one another as they are now. There was a time, and that time is not far off, when both were thoroughly combined: the villages were then the seats of a variety of industries, and the artisans in the cities did not abandon agriculture; many towns were nothing else but industrial villages. If the medieval city was the cradle of those industries which fringed art and were intended to supply the wants of the richer classes, still it was the rural manufacture which supplied the wants of the million; so it does until the present day in Russia. But then came the water-motors, steam, the development of machinery, and they broke the link which formerly connected the farm with the workshop. Factories grew up, and they abandoned the fields. They gathered where the... (From : Anarchy Archives.)

Anarchism : Anarchist and Anti-Authoritarianism -- 1887 This text was taken from In Russian and French Prisons, London: Ward and Downey; 1887. In Russian and French Prisons by P. Kropotkin CHAPTER I MY FIRST ACQUAINTANCE WITH RUSSIAN PRISONS My first acquaintance with Russian prisons was made in Siberia. It was in 1862. I had then just arrived at Irkutsk--a young Lieutenant of Cossacks, not fully twenty years of age,--and a couple of months after my arrival I was appointed secretary to a committee for the reform of prisons. A few words of explanation are necessary, I suppose, for my English readers. The education I had received was only what a military school could give. Much of our time had been devoted, of course, to mathematics and physical sciences; still more to the science of warfare, to the art of destroying men on battle-fields. But we were living, then, in Russia at the time...

Anarchism : Anarchist and Anti-Authoritarianism -- 1908 ~ (853 Words / 5,304 Characters)This letter is part of the International Institute of Social History's Alexander Berkman archive and appears in Anarchy Archives with permission. The transcription is incomplete and in parts mere guesswork due to the difficulty of reading Kropotkin's handwriting.. Letter From Peter Kropotkin to Alexander Berkman, RE: Blast Personal not for print Viola. Muswill Hill Row London, N. November 20, 1908 Dear Berkman You are quite right in taking a hopeful view of the progress of our ideas in America. It would have been far greater, I am sure, if the American anarchists had succeeded in merging themselves into the mass of the workingmen. So long as they remain a knot, a handfull, aristocratically keeping apart from the mass of the working men --- They may display the most heroic devotion to the cause of labor --- as you did, Dear, good friend --- their efforts will remain fruit... (From : Anarchy Archives.)

Anarchism : Anarchist and Anti-Authoritarianism -- (593 Words / 3,838 Characters)From Selected Writings on Anarchism and Revolution, P.A. Kropotkin, edited and translated by Martin A. Miller. The letter appears in Anarchy Archives with the permission of the editor and translator. Dmitrov (Moscow province) 21 December, 1920 Respected Vladimir Illich, An announcement has been placed in Izvestiia and in Pravda which makes known the decision of the Soviet government to seize as hostages SRs [Social Revolutionary party members] from the Savinkov groups, White Guards of the nationalist and tactical center, and Wrangel officers; and, in case of an [assassination] attempt on the leaders of the soviets, to mercilessly exterminate these hostages. Is there really no one around you to remind your comrades and to persuade them that such measures represent a return to the worst period of the Middle Ages and religious wars, and are undeserving of people who have taken it upon... (From : Anarchy Archives.)

Anarchism : Anarchist and Anti-Authoritarianism -- 1920 ~ (852 Words / 5,439 Characters)From Selected Writings on Anarchism and Revolution, P.A. Kropotkin, edited and translated by Martin A. Miller. The letter appears in Anarchy Archives with the permission of the editor and translator. Dmitrov, 4 March, 1920 Esteemed Vladimir Ilich, Several employes of the postal-telegraph department have come to me with the request that I bring to your attention information about their truly desperate situation. As this problem concerns not only the commissariat of mail and telegraphs alone, but the general condition of everyday life in Russia, I hasten to fulfill their request. You know, of course, that to live in the Dmitrov district on the salary received by these employes is absolutely impossible. It is impossible even to buy a bushel of potatoes with this [salary]; I know this from personal experience. In exchange they ask for soap and salt, of which there is noe. Since [the price] of flour has go... (From : Anarchy Archives.)

Anarchism : Anarchist and Anti-Authoritarianism -- 1902 ~ (5,219 Words / 31,843 Characters)Viola, Bromley, Kent March 5, 1902 My dear friend, I read your letter with a great deal of personal and general interest, and I would like to be able to answer it at length, as well as to discuss one of its essential points, individualism. Maybe someday I will write a few articles on individualism. At any rate, I will try to answer you now without entering into lengthy details. I will start with the central point of your letter, in which you ask why youth is not the same now as it was in 1890-94. According to you, it is because at the time, we were affected by the libertarian movement in art and literature and so forth. Well, we still are. The only difference is that it is they who no longer want us, and that, after having given us several comrades, they are now what they have always been, Epicureans... (From : Anarchy Archives.)

Anarchism : Anarchist and Anti-Authoritarianism -- (8,127 Words / 49,138 Characters)LAW AND AUTHORITY: AN ANARCHIST ESSAY BY PIERRE KROPOTKIN. PRICE THREEPENCE. LONDON: WILLIAM REEVES, 83 CHARING CROSS ROAD, W. C. Chapter 1 "WHEN ignorance reigns in society and disorder in the minds of men, laws are multiplied, legislation is expected to do everything, and each fresh law being a fresh miscalculation, men are continually led to demand form it what can proceed only from themselves, from their own education and their own morality." It is no revolutionist who says this, nor even a reformer. It is the jurist, Dalloy, author of the Collection of French law known as Repertoire de la Legislation. And yet, though these lines were written by a man who was himself a maker and admirer of law, they perfectly represent the abnormal condition of our society. In existing States a fresh law is looked upon as a remedy for evil. Instead of themselves altering what is... (From : Anarchy Archives.)

Anarchism : Anarchist and Anti-Authoritarianism -- 1914 ~ (2,624 Words / 15,759 Characters)This letter from Kropotkin to a Swedish professor named Gustav Steffen was published in "Freedom" in the fall of 1914. A LETTER TO STEFFEN Dear Steffen, You ask my opinion about the war. I have expressed it on several occasions in France, and the present events, unfortunately, only reinforced it. I consider that the duty of everyone who cherishes the idea of human progress altogether, and especially those that were inscribed by the European proletarians on the banner of the International Workingmen's Association, is to do everything in one's power, according to one's capacities, to crush down the invasion of the Germans into Western Europe. The cause of this war was not Russia's attitude toward the Austrian ultimatum, as the German government, true to Bismarck's traditions, has tried to represent it. As early as July 19 it was known among the West European continental statesmen that the German government had defin... (From : Anarchy Archives.)

Anarchism : Anarchist and Anti-Authoritarianism -- 1916 ~ (1,478 Words / 8,964 Characters)The Manifesto of the Sixteen From various sides, voices are raised to demand immediate peace. There has been enough bloodshed, they say, enough destruction, and it is time to finish things, one way or another. More than anyone, and for a long time, we and our journals have been against every war of aggression between peoples, and against militarism, no matter what uniform, imperial or republican, it dons. So we would be delighted to see the conditions of peace discussed—if that was possible—by the European workers, gathered in an international congress. Especially since the German people let itself be deceived in August 1914, and if they really believed that they mobilized for the defense of their territory, they have since had time to realize that they were wrong to embark on a war of conquest. Indeed, the German workers, at least in their more or less advanced associations, must understand now that the plans for the invasion... (From : Libertarian-Labyrinth, http://libertarian-labyrint....)

Anarchism : Anarchist and Anti-Authoritarianism -- (3,347 Words / 19,981 Characters)Maxím Górky BY PRINCE PETER KROPOTKIN AUTHOR OF "FIELDS, FACTORIES AND WORKSHOPS," "MUTUAL AID," ETC. Maxim Gorky Courtesy of Charles Scribner's Sons FEW writers have established their reputation so rapidly as Maxím Górky. His first sketches (1892-95), were published in an obscure provincial paper of the Caucasus, and were totally unknown to the literary world, but when a short tale of his appeared in a widely-read [illustration omitted] review, edited by Korolénko, it at once attracted general attention. The beauty of its form, its artistic finish, and the new note of strength and courage which rang through it, brought the young writer immediately into prominence. It became known that Maxím Górky was the pen-name of quite a young man, A. Pyeshkoff, who was born in 1868 in Nizhni Novgorod, a large town on the Volga... (From : University of Virginia Library.)

Anarchism : Anarchist and Anti-Authoritarianism -- 1899 This text was taken from a 1st edition of Memoirs of a Revolutionist, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston and New York, 1899. Note This book would not probably have been written for some time to come, but for the kind invitation and the most friendly encouragement of the editor and the publishers of "The Atlantic Monthly" to write it for serial publication in their magazine. I feel it a most pleasant duty to express here my very best thanks for the hospitality that was offered to me, and for the friendly pressure that was exercised to induce me to undertake this work. It was published in "The Atlantic Monthly" (September, 1898, to September, 1899), under the title, "The Autobiography of a Revolutionist." Preparing it now for publication in book form, I have added considerably to the original text in the parts dealing with my youth and my stay in Siberia, and especially in the Sixth Part, in which I have told...

Anarchism : Anarchist and Anti-Authoritarianism -- 1903 Modern Science and Anarchism Peter Kropotkin This text was taken from my copy translated from the Russian original by David A. Modell and published by The Social Science Club of Philadelphia in 1903. I. Anarchism, like Socialism in general, and like every other social movement, has not, of course, developed out of science or out of some philosophical school. The social sciences are still very far removed from the time when they shall be as exact as are physics and chemistry. Even in meteorology we cannot yet predict the weather a month, or even one week, in advance. It would be unreasonable, therefore, to expect of the young social sciences, which are concerned with phenomena much more complex than winds and rain, that they should foretell social events with any approach to certainty. Besides, it must not be forgotten that men of science, too, are but human, and that most of them either belong by d...

Anarchism : Anarchist and Anti-Authoritarianism -- Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution Peter Kropotkin 1902 Chapter 4: MUTUAL AID AMONG THE BARBARIANS The great migrations. -- New organization rendered necessary. -- The village community. -- Communal work. -- Judicial procedure -- Inter-tribal law. -- Illustrations from the life of our contemporaries -- Buryates. -- Kabyles. -- Caucasian mountaineers. -- African stems. It is not possible to study primitive mankind without being deeply impressed by the sociability it has displayed since its very first steps in life. Traces of human societies are found in the relics of both the oldest and the later stone age; and, when we come to observe the savages whose manners of life are still those of neolithic man, we find them closely bound together by an extremely ancient clan organization which enables them to combine their individually weak forces, to enjoy life in common, and to progress. M...

Anarchism : Anarchist and Anti-Authoritarianism -- (1,798 Words / 10,598 Characters)We are often reproached for accepting as a label this word anarchy, which frightens many people so much. "Your ideas are excellent", we are told, "but you must admit that the name of your party is an unfortunate choice. Anarchy in common language is synonymous with disorder and chaos; the word brings to mind the idea of interests clashing, of individuals struggling, which cannot lead to the establishment of harmony". Let us begin by pointing out that a party devoted to action, a party representing a new tendency, seldom has the opportunity of choosing a name for itself. It was not the Beggars of Brabant who made up their name, which later came to be popular. But, beginning as a nickname - and a well-chosen one - it was taken up by the party, accepted generally, and soon became its proud title. It will also be seen that this word summed up a whole idea. And the Sans-culottes of 1793? It was the enemies of the popular revolution who coine... (From : Anarchy Archives.)

Anarchism : Anarchist and Anti-Authoritarianism -- 1893 ~ (5,938 Words / 36,095 Characters)WHEN Professor Huxley introduced, twenty-three years ago, the name and the subject of Physiography, his intentions were certainly excellent. Natural sciences were almost entirely excluded at that time from the schools. The teaching of geography stood very low: political geography, so-called, was a mere collection of names, and an entirely subordinate subject; and physical geography was a collection of information, too abstract, too incoherent, too wide, and too superficial at the same time, to be of any use in education. Under the name of Physiography natural sciences were, so to say, smuggled into the schools. And by showing how the study of Nature may be approached, and methods of scientific observation may be rendered familiar by examining things close at hand, Professor Huxley has undoubtedly rendered an immense service to this country. He has brought about a far-reaching reform. However, the very form which Physiography assumed in his well-known textbook... (From : Anarchy Archives.)

Anarchism : Anarchist and Anti-Authoritarianism -- (2,820 Words / 17,330 Characters)Freedom Press London In the year 1837, Adolphe Blanqui (brother of the revolutionary leader from whom the Blanquists took their name) wrote a book, The History of Political Economy. He showed in it the importance which economics had in the history of humanity for the determination of political forms and also for the building up of current ideas on Right, Morals and Philosophy. Sixty years ago, Liberals and Radicals concentrated their thoughts on politics, and were altogether unaware of the new industrial conditions which were in course of formation out of the ruins of the old regime. It was from Blanquis point of view quite legitimate that in order to draw attention upon economics and upon the Socialist movement which was then beginning, he should have gone so far as to build the whole history upon economics. Some one-sidedness was not to be avoided, was even perhaps desirable; other factors being under investigation, already more or less known, h... (From : Anarchy Archives.)

Anarchism : Anarchist and Anti-Authoritarianism -- 1884 ~ (6,428 Words / 37,601 Characters)PART I. You must often have asked yourselves what is the cause of Anarchism, and why, since there are already so many Socialist schools, it is necessary to found an additional one -- that of Anarchism. In order to answer this question I will go back to the close of last century. You all know the characteristics which marked that epoch: there was all expansion of intelligence a prodigious development of the natural sciences, a pitiless examination of accepted prejudices, the formation of a theory of Nature based on a truly scientific foundation, observation and reasoning. In addition to these there was criticism of the political institutions bequeathed to Humanity by preceding ages, and a movement towards that ideal of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity which has in all times been the ideal of the popular masses. Fettered in its free development by despotism and by the narrow selfishness of the privileged classes, this movement being at t... (From : Anarchy Archives.)

Anarchism : Anarchist and Anti-Authoritarianism -- 1901 ~ (5,303 Words / 32,674 Characters)The last students' disturbances in Russia were quite different from all the disturbances which have taken place in the Russian universities for the last forty years. They began, as all students' movements begin, with an insignificant incident, which concerned the students alone; but, owing to a series of circumstances quite peculiar to Russia, they took, all of a sudden, a political complexion ; and in this respect they acquired such a significance that they will now count in the history of the constitutional movement in Russia as an important milestone. Consequently it is impossible to speak of the last events without going deeper than their surface — that is, without touching upon the general problem of education in Russia, and without mentioning the steps through which the development of the constitutional idea has passed in our country since 1861. During my stay last month, at Cambridge, the Harvard students held a noisy meeting to protest against th... (From : Anarchy Archives.)

Anarchism : Anarchist and Anti-Authoritarianism -- 1887 ~ (420 Words / 2,641 Characters)As to parliamentary rule, and representative government altogether, ... It is becoming evident that it is merely stupid to elect a few men [sic], and to entrust them with the task of making laws on all possible subjects, of which subject most of them are utterly ignorant. It is becoming understood that Majority rule is as defective as any other kind of rule; and Humanity searches, and finds, new channels for resolving the pending questions. The Postal Union did not elect an international postal parliament in order to make laws for all postal organizations adherent to the Union. The railways of Europe did not elect an international railway parliament in order to regulate the running of the trains and the partition of the income of international traffic; and the Meteorological and Geological Societies of Europe did not elect either meteorological or geological parliaments to plan polar stations, or to establish a uniform subdivision of geological formations and uniform... (From : Anarchy Archives.)

Anarchism : Anarchist and Anti-Authoritarianism -- (2,634 Words / 16,317 Characters)The Newcastle Daily Chronicle: February 20, 1985, p4. Reprinted in Small Communal Experiments and Why They Fail Jura Books Editor's Preface Peter Kropotkin (1842-1921) was one of the greatest anarchist theoreticians of his time. Although he admired the directly democratic and non-authoritarian practices of the traditional peasant village commune, he was never an advocate of small and isolated communal experimentalism. Many people, upon reading his works, have been inspired to found such communities, both in his own time as well as the hippies of the 1960s (a period when Kropotkin's major works were epublished and influential). Kropotkin did not consider such ventures were likely to be successful or useful in achieving wider revolutionary goals. His friend, Elisee Reclus, who had been involved in such a venture in South America in his youth, was even more hostile to small comm... (From : Anarchy Archives.)

Anarchism : Anarchist and Anti-Authoritarianism -- 1892 ~ (5,247 Words / 31,997 Characters)REVOLUTIONARY GOVERNMENT Peter Kropotkin TRANSLATED FROM LA REVOLTE And reprinted from The Commonweal. PRICE ONE PENNY LONDON. 40, BERNER STREET, COMMERCIAL ROAD, E. 1892. REVOLUTIONARY GOVERNMENT PART 1 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ That the Governments at present existing ought to be abolished, so that Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity should no longer be empty words but become living realities, and that all forms of government as yet tried have only been so many forms of oppression, and ought to be replaced by a new form of grouping, so far all who have a brain and temperament ever so little revolutionary unanimously agree. In truth one does not need to be much of an innovator in order to arrive at this conclusion; the vises of the governments of to-day, and the impossibility of reforming them, are too evident to be hidden from th... (From : Anarchy Archives.)

Anarchism : Anarchist and Anti-Authoritarianism -- 1892 ~ (12,726 Words / 77,666 Characters)The word Revolution is upon all lips and one feels its first vibrations. And, as always, at the approach of great commotions and great changes, all who are dissatisfied with the actual regime-how small may be their discontent-hasten to adopt the title of revolutionaries, hitherto so dangerous, now so simple. They do not cling to the actual regime; they are ready to try a new one; that suffices for them. This affluence, to the ranks of the revolutionaries, of a mass of malcontents of all shades, creates the force of revolutions and renders them inevitable. A simple conspiracy in the palace, or of Parliament, more or less supported by what is called public opinion suffices to change the men in power, and sometimes the form of government. But a Revolution, to effect any change whatever in economic .order, requires the agreement of an immense number of wills. Without the agreement, more or less active of millions, no revolution is possible. It is necessary that ev... (From : Anarchy Archives.)

Anarchism : Anarchist and Anti-Authoritarianism -- 1919 ~ (2,432 Words / 14,779 Characters)The Russian Revolution and the Soviet Government Letter to the Workers of Western Europe Dmitrov, Russia, April 28, 1919 I have been asked if I did not have a message for the workers of the western world. Certainly there is plenty to say an learn of the actual events in Russia. As the message would have to be long to cover all, I will indicate only the principal points. First, the workers of the civilized world and their friend in other classes ought to prevail on their governments to abandon entirely the idea of armed intervention in Russia whether openly or secretly. Russia is undergoing now a revolution of the same extent and importance as England under went in 1639 to '48, and France in 1789 to '94. Every nation should refuse to play the shameful role played by England, Prussia, Austria and Russia during the French Revolution. Further, it must be borne in mind that the Russian R... (From : Marxists.org.)

Anarchism : Anarchist and Anti-Authoritarianism -- 1902 ~ (3,718 Words / 23,669 Characters)"Russian Schools and the Holy Synod," North American Review, Vol 174, No. 454, April 1902, pp. 518-527. Russian Schools and the Holy Synod By Prince Kropotkin If the September number of the NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW, which contained a rejoinder by the Procurator of the Holy Synod to my article on "The Present Crisis in Russia," (North American Review, May, 1901) was allowed to enter Russia, my compatriots will surely feel most grateful to the Editor for having obtained that rejoinder. For nearly twenty years, almost every paper and review in Russia, with the exception of the subsidized Moscow Gazette and The Russian Messenger, has been bitterly criticizing both the system of schools inaugurated by the Procurator and the highly-colored reports about them which have been made every year to the Emperor. These papers have received "warnings" — three warnings meaning the suppression of the paper; but their criticisms have never been... (From : Anarchy Archives.)

Anarchism : Anarchist and Anti-Authoritarianism -- 1887 ~ (6,448 Words / 39,222 Characters)THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. Feb. 1887 THE SCIENTIFIC BASES OF ANARCHY ANARCHY, the No-Government system of Socialism, has a double origin. It is an outgrowth of the two great movements of thought in the economical and the political fields which characterize our century, and especially its second part. In common with all Socialists, the anarchists hold that the private ownership of land, capital, and machinery has had its time; that it is condemned to disappear; and that all requisites for production must, and will, become the common property of society, and be managed in common by the producers of wealth. And, in common with the most advanced representatives of political Radicalism, they maintain that the ideal of the political organization of society is a condition of things where the functions of government are reduced to a minimum, and the individual recovers his full liberty of initiative and action for satisfying, by means of free groups and feder... (From : Anarchy Archives.)

Anarchism : Anarchist and Anti-Authoritarianism -- 1898 ~ (9,603 Words / 56,892 Characters)From The Nineteenth Century, March 1898, pp. 494-514. SOME OF THE RESOURCES OF CANADA Last summer I received from the Toronto organizing committee the invitation to come out to Canada with the British Association. It is well known, but it gives me great pleasure to acknowledge it once more that the members of the British Association, whether British or foreign, received from the Canadians - and those of us who went to the States from the Americans - the most friendly welcome, and were treated with the utmost cordiality and hospitality. Many a standing friendship between scientific men of the Old and the New World has grown up during that visit. After the meeting of the British Association was over a most instructive trip was organized by the Canadian Pacific Railway Association across the continent to Vancouver, and I had the privilege of belonging to the party of geologists and geographers who went out, and stopped to visit th... (From : Anarchy Archives.)

Anarchism : Anarchist and Anti-Authoritarianism -- 1880 ~ (2,945 Words / 18,414 Characters)There are periods in the life of human society when revolution becomes an imperative necessity, when it proclaims itself as inevitable. New ideas germinate everywhere, seeking to force their way into the light, to find an application in life; everywhere they are opposed by the inertia of those whose interest it is to maintain the old order; they suffocate in the stifling atmosphere of prejudice and traditions. The accepted ideas of the constitution of the State, of the laws of social equilibrium, of the political and economic interrelations of citizens, can hold out no longer against the implacable criticism which is daily undermining them whenever occasion arises,--in drawing room as in cabaret, in the writings of philosophers as in daily conversation. Political, economic, and social institutions are crumbling; the social structure, having become uninhabitable, is hindering, even preventing the development of the seeds which are being propagated within its damaged walls... (From : Anarchy Archives.)

Anarchism : Anarchist and Anti-Authoritarianism -- 1946 This text is from my copy of Kropotkin, P. "The State: Its Historic Role," London: Freedom Press, 1946; The Translator notes are from the Vanguard version. Translator's Notes When Kropotkin was invited by Jean Grave, editor of Les Temps Nouveaux, to take part in a series of lectures to be held in the Milles Colonnes Hall in Paris in March 1896, he chose two subjects: The State: Its Historic Role and Anarchism: Its Philosophy and Its Ideal. Bearing in mind that his greatest work, Mutual Aid, had been appearing as a series of articles in The Nineteenth Century from 1890-1896 his choice of subjects for these lectures is not surprising. Kropotkin explains in the French edition of his Memoirs "The research that I carried out in the course of familiarizing myself with the institutions of the barbarian period and...

Anarchism : Anarchist and Anti-Authoritarianism -- 1909 Kropotkin, Peter. The Terror in Russia. London: Methuen & Co., 1909. 4th Ed. B.--Ill-treatment and Tortures Many pages could be covered with the description of the ill-treatment and the tortures in different prisons of Russia. Only some striking instances, however, can be mentioned here. It is known through the daily Press that there were so many complaints about the misrule of the head of the Moscow police, General Rheinbot, that a special Commission was sent out by the Senate, under Senator Garin, to inquire into the affair. The head of the police just mentioned has been dismissed ; perhaps he will be brought before a Court, and striking instances arising out of his misrule have already been communicated more or less officially to the daily Press.1 Thus, one of the witnesses, M. Maximoff, examined by the Commission, who had been kept in one of the lock-ups the Moscow police, deposed...

Anarchism : Anarchist and Anti-Authoritarianism -- 1920 ~ (6,184 Words / 37,436 Characters)FREEDOM PAMPHLETS. No. 1. New Edition. 1920. I. REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT AND WAGES. In their plan for the reconstruction of society, the Collectivists commit, in our opinion, a double error. Whilst speaking of the abolition of the rule of capital, they wish, nevertheless, to maintain two institutions which form the very basis of that rule, namely, representative government and the wage system. As for representative government, it remains absolutely incomprehensible to us how intelligent men (and they are not wanting among the Collectivists) can continue to be the partizans of national and municipal parliaments, after all the lessons on this subject bestowed on us by history, whether in England or in France, in Germany, Switzerland or the United States. Whilst parliamentary rule is seen to be everywhere falling to pieces; whilst its... (From : Anarchy Archives.)

Anarchism : Anarchist and Anti-Authoritarianism -- 1914 ~ (2,386 Words / 14,714 Characters)The spectacle presented at this moment by Europe is deplorable enough but withal particularly instructive. On the one hand, diplomatists and courtiers hurrying hither and thither with the increased activity which displays itself whenever the air of our old continent begins to smell of powder. Alliances are being made and unmade, with much chaffering over the amount of human cattle that shall form the price of the bargain. "So many million head on condition of your house supporting ours; so many acres to feed them, such and such seaports for the export of their wool." Each plotting to overreach his rivals in the market. That is what in political jargon is known as diplomacy. [NOTE.-While it will be understood that the political situation of Europe has changed since these lines were written, the same arguments are entirely applicable to the present time.] On the other hand, endless development of armed force. Every day we hear of fresh invention... (From : Anarchy Archives.)

Anarchism : Anarchist and Anti-Authoritarianism -- 1914 ~ (6,765 Words / 41,830 Characters)From: Kropotkin, Peter. Wars and Capitalism. Freedom Pamphlet. Freedom Press, London, 1914. Wars and Capitalism1 By PETER KROPOTKIN I. INDUSTRIAL COMPETITION In 1883, when England, Germany, Austria, and Romania, taking advantage of the isolation of France, leagued themselves against Russia, and a terrible European war was about to blaze forth, we pointed out in the Révolté what were the real motives for rivalry among States and the wars resulting therefrom. The reason for modern war is always the competition for markets and the right to exploit nations backward in industry. In Europe we no longer fight for the honor of kings. Armies are pitted against each other that the revenues of Messrs. Almighty Rothschild, of Schneider, of the Most Worshipful Company of Anzin, or of the most Holy Catholic Bank of Rome may remain unimpaired. Kings are no longer o... (From : Anarchy Archives.)

Anarchism : Anarchist and Anti-Authoritarianism -- (8,421 Words / 51,320 Characters)From: Peter Kropotkin . "What Geography Ought to Be." The Nineteenth Century. V.18, pp. 940-56. WHAT GEOGRAPHY OUGHT TO BE.1 It was easy to foresee that the great revival of Natural Science which our generation has had the happiness to witness for thirty years, as also the new direction given to scientific literature by a phalanx of prominent men who dared to bring up the results of the most complicated scientific research in a shape accessible to the general reader, would necessarily bring about a like revival of Geography. This science, which takes up the laws discovered by its sister sciences, and shows their mutual action and consequences with regard to the superficies of the globe, could not remain an outsider to the general scientific movement; and we see now an interest awakened in Geography which very much recalls the general interest taken in it by a proceeding generation during the first half of... (From : Anarchy Archives.)

Anarchism : Anarchist and Anti-Authoritarianism -- 1885 Words of a Rebel Peter Kropotkin The Situation Today It is evident that we are advancing rapidly towards revolution, towards an upheaval that will begin in one country and spread, as in 1848, into all the neighboring lands, and, as it rocks existing society to its foundations, will also reopen the springs of life. To confirm our view, we do not even have to invoke the testimony of a celebrated German historian, or a well-known Italian philosopher, both of whom, having deeply studied the history of our times, have reached the conclusion that a great revolution was inevitable towards the end of this century. We need only watch the panorama that has unrolled before us over the past twenty years; we need only observe what goes on around us. When we do so, we perceive two major facts emerging from the murky depths of the canvas: the awakening of the peoples, in contrast to the moral, intellectual and economic failure of the...

Kropotkin, Peter - As anarchism's most important philosophers he was in great demand as a writer and contributed to the journals edited by Benjamin Tucker (Liberty), Albert Parsons (Alarm) and Johann Most (Freiheit). Tucker praised Kropotkin's publication as "the most scholarly anarchist journal in existence."